what the heck is this??

[jbtwins24]

this afternoon i was walking in the woods and theres this little creek that goes through it, i saw a bunch of brook trout then i started to see these other fish. i have no idea what they are but they were yellow and the same size of the brookies i saw. i was going to snap a pic but i scared them so they took off up the stream. anybody have a clue what those are?? i never seen them before in my life, they kinda looked like over sized goldfish in a trout creek.

[fish500]

Possibly young carp? These are very similar to goldfish, and I have seen them this time of year in creeks. They can be "yellowish", but the depth of their body in relation to their length would be greater than a brook trout's (more stout).

[DEADhead]

creek chubs? they sometimes are yellow depending on the water. I've seen plenty that are in the 12-14" range. close up they do look a lot like a carp, especially with their bigger scales.

[jbtwins24]

ok heres the thing though, you can see the scales most of the time, i didnt see scales, it looked more like a trout but yellow. i guess ill have to go out and try to catch one to see what the heck it is, if i do ill post pics of it, thats if its odd looking.

[Rugbyguy]

I wouldn't try catching one if its a designated trout stream.

[jbtwins24]

thats true but i dont know if it is or not. i talked to my buddy that owns the land and he had that land for 7 yrs now and never ever seen any kind of fish in there. the creek dosnt even have a name so i honestly wouldnt even know anything about it to much, my plan is to ask the local dnr about that stream and what could be in it.

[big musk411]

I will second the creek chubs. I occasionaly catch them in one river that I trout fish. They will hit small nymphs and surface flys like trout do. You may have found a great spot to catch bait .

[fish500]

If they looked a lot like brook trout but were yellow, then they could have been brown trout.

[may502]

years ago Iowa used to stock albino rainbow trout. Those trout were yellow/gold with red eyes, you could not tell the color of the eyes in the water, but definitely could not miss the trout. They would stick out like a sore thumb.

I don't believe they stock them anymore. And I have never heard of MN stocking any of them.

[LIGHTLINE]

CHANCES ARE IF YOU FISH A LITTLE FOR TROUT, AND LOOK AT THE IDENTFYING MARKS ON THE PECTORAL FIN , IT DISPLAYS A LITTLE COLOR RESEMBLING A BROOK TROUT. CHANCES ARE THEY ARE SPLAKE.

CROSS BETWEEN A LAKE TROUT AND A BROOK TROUT.

[DEADhead]

Quote:

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CHANCES ARE THEY ARE SPLAKE.

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I don't think so. First of all, splake aren't stocked in stream/river environments, in MN they are stocked in oligotrophic lakes in NE MN and the Arrowhead. They won't stock mutant fish in the driftless area, especially in light of recent work down there to rehabilitate many of the streams and restore the native brook trout range. If there were splake in those streams they would have been a result of escaping from the Peterson and Crystal Springs hatcheries.

[jbtwins24]

i still dont know what the heck they are, went down the other day to see if i can catch one and couldnt. i dont know of they are brown trout, thats what i thought at first. also they have these eyes that kinda stick out. im still going to try to catch one and take a pic of it. i talked to the dnr about that stream and on a map that stream isnt there, i showed him exactly where its at. so i can fish that with no problem, he just reminded me that i cant keep any fish though, kinda knew that one. i hope i can get pics of that fish this weekend.

[Tyler Holm]

Did they look like this?

Creek Chub

[so haaad]

Maybe you found the infamous Forest Lake golden trout!

My guess is if it's yellowish it's likely a brown trout.

[jbtwins24]

i put a worm in front of them and i guess they didnt want it. but i just got back from missouri and went to the bass pro shop down there, they had some golden trout and it looked like what was in the stream. would that be possible?? i never even heard of a golden trout before, heck i dont know how they would even get in the streams. anybody, any idea??

[WxGuy]

Brown trout are in their spawning colors and can be surprisingly colorful. That's my first speculation. I highly doubt it's anything exotic to the area, but anything's possible anymore with the number of people who have private ponds and are rearing pellet fed mega-trout and possibly some other strange fish...

[Badger_55]

Im definitely interested in this one. You are saying these fish are 12-14" in length. An average brown compared to an average brooky is a little larger in size. But i have caught a good number of river browns and you would be surprised the colors they carry in that cool water. But are these fish a little larger than your brookies?